Disappointing battery life

Digging around in the menus on both the phone and the watch I have found two things turned on that I have now turned off to see if it makes a difference

On the watch I found Display Group Track on map turned on, I never use it on my watch so it is of no use to me. I do have the map as one of my screens on my GPS activities and rarely display it but I was wondering if maybe the watch uses this as a queue to communicate and update details during and maybe some time after an activity.

On the phone I had the option auto-update apps turned on, I don't actually think this works too well anyway as when I connect to Garmin Express it is still reporting that 4 apps are out of date and need updating. Again I wonder if the watch is trying to update after an activity (and perhaps failing) drinking more power.

I know I am digging in the dark but being a developer for over 30 years has taught me to never discount anything until you have tried it ;)

Since I am also looking for anything I can do to increase the amount of time my 5S Plus stays charged, I am interested in checking these 2 things you mentioned. Where do you find the option to auto-update apps?

Thanks -

Since I am also looking for anything I can do to increase the amount of time my 5S Plus stays charged, I am interested in checking these 2 things you mentioned. Where do you find the option to auto-update apps?

Thanks -

On the Android app its under Garmin Devices>Fenix 5 Plus>General>Auto Update Apps

That's because of the silly battery meter on this thing. Not all percentage points are created equal. 20 minut GPS might only consume 1% when your watch is around 70% charge and consume 8% when it's around 10%. And yes, I've seen something similar with mine.

Basically, battery meter is very unreliable. The only accurate tests are running the watch down to 0 or at least close to and seeing how it does. It may consume 4%/hour of GPS on one day and 15% the next.

I managed to go from 100% (+extra charging time) to shutdown (which I think happened at about 2%) in almost exactly 48 hours, with three x 1 hour GPS bike rides and a 20 minute non-GPS workout.

It's disappointing that Garmin are happy to let us all keep taking/wasting our own time and effort trying to get to the bottom of this ourselves rather than just give us some indication that this is an issue they're working on, and whether they've already identified the root cause.

These are my f… numbers:

I wear 24/7, wrist HR on (Fenix 5 Plus Saphire, iPhone 6s IOS 11.4.1)


Jul 25: (bluetooth off except on activity, wifi off, light off except at night 20% 4 seconds)

Full charge (23:30-6:30) 100%
9:30 97%
11:10 87% (activity 1h38’+HRM-tri+livetrack. Upload via wifi)
14:00 83%
18:00 80%
21:00 78%
00:00 76%
7:30 70%

25h: 10% activity, 20% smart watch


Jul 26: (bluetooth on)

7:30 70%
11:30 66%
15:30 62% (install watch face actiface)
17:30 60%
00:00 55%
7:55 50%

24h25': 20% smart watch


Jul 27: (bluetooth on)

7:55 50% (install IQ Battery Gauge)
12:00 46% (uninstall Battery Gauge)


Garmin said my battery is OK

Continuing to see post activity battery drain. Checked the battery before my run this morning and it was at 30%. Went for a one hour run. GPS+Galileo, OHR, Stryd connected. Backlight set to gesture. Finished the run, battery was at 24%. Seems reasonable. Returned to smart watch mode, stock watch face, backlight set to after sunset, no button presses. Check the battery level 2.5 hours later and it has dropped to 20%. I am going to try some of the suggestions others have posted, but would appreciate seeing some acknowledgement from Garmin that this is a known issue.

Given Garmins gauge of a 12 Day Battery Life that we all know is tested under certain conditions using certain criteria etc, then effectively we should see a battery drain of 8-10% per day - maybe 12% at most when using GPS for an hour
The fact that once you activate GPS it just drains the battery then clearly there's the issue.

I've had a couple of buggy issues since I had it (frozen intensity minutes, steps not recording.... so I did a reset last night - although I had to try 4 times before it actually cleared EVERYTHING.
The holding of the LAP button whilst turning on no longer clears everything, and no longer asks to CLEAR USER DATA.
I ended up doing the 3 Button start up method and it worked a treat.

I've set the watch up in its rawest of states - Basic Watch Face, Haven't defined any activities, or changed any settings except for personal info, and have added HR, Steps and Active Minutes to the list of Apps.
No Setting up of Wifi or Bluetooth and not connected to phone.

I fully charged the watch, 100% at 9.00pm - left on charge till 11.00pm
99% at 06.30 this morning, and having been at work and its now almost 3.00pm, the battery is at 97%


And referencing the bugs I had.... So far my steps have been more realistic, did my daily (pre set) allowance before 10.30.
My active minutes are actually recording my (non standard) activities.

I shall be adding it to the phone tonight and monitoring.
Then tomorrow will add some activities and try GPS - see if it drains down 8% in 15 minutes again.

People keep mentioning about having Bluetooth and WiFi off..... aren't these needed for syncing and other stuff?
Is there a shortcut for turning and off... and how would I know when I need it?
Obviously BT is for uploading data to phone, and getting notifications - I'd want this on ideally... but WiFi??

Wi-Fi isn't a necessity, it was a cost-option on the Fenix 5. The only advantage it gave you was quicker syncing over Wi-Fi which was independent of your phone, so that's all you'll lose out on if you stop using it (but still use Bluetooth). However, AFAIK Wi-Fi is only operational when you finish an activity (if you have auto-sync set on), or if you do a manual sync. There doesn't appear to be an actual setting to disable Wi-Fi, but if you disable auto-upload in the Wi-Fi settings then this should have the same effect. Of course you could just delete your Wi-Fi network from the device under Settings>Wi-Fi.

So in continuing to track my F5+ battery, I'm seeing roughly 8% drain per day just wearing the watch. Haven't done any activities the past 2 days, but today looking to go out for a 60-75km bike ride using external HR via BT and Cadence via BT. Probably a 2-2.5hr ride depending on weather today, so using my stat from Jul (8% drain for 1 hour), I should burn between 16% and 20% battery. Add to it 8% smartwatch and I should be down to 23% - 19% by the end of the day. Let's see.

Edit: Using iOS 11.4 on iPhone 6s, phone notifications disabled (e.g. no emails, texts, calendar), the following active screens: Last 4 hours HR, steps, stairs, Last Sport, Training Status, ABC, Weather, Music and lastly I use the Line watch face (displaying time, battery %, steps, calories, distance, HR, sunrise/sunset.

Jul 25
22:00 65%
12% activity (4% swim + 8% GPS)
8% smart watch (85% - 65% - 12%)

Jul 26
09:18 61%
10:57 61%
12:30 60%
13:55 60%
18:30 58%
21:45 57%
8% smart watch (65% - 57%)

Jul 27
06:50 55%
12:04 53%
21:00 49%
~8% smart watch (57% - 49%)

Jul 28
07:45 47%

Been following this thread and have the 010-01988-06 F5+ version. I received it last week, as it was on pre-order for quite a while and did not seem to release on time with the red marker version. Anyhow I have been tracking my battery this week and it seems to be somewhat normal to me. But wanted to share if anyone felt it should be performing better. I wear 24/7, have wrist HR on, WiFi turned off, BT to phone and all sensors disabled until they are needed. My activities are below and the sensors used.

Jul 23
06:45 100% Put watch on after overnight full charge (11% @ 9:30pm on Jul 22)
07:44 - 08:38 Lap Swimming (54:23) + upload to Garmin Connect via iPhone
10:15 95%
11:15 95%
15:15 94%
15:37 93%
17:36 93%
21:00 91%

Jul 24
06:40 88%
08:30 87%
14:30 86%
17:30 85%

Jul 25
06:00 83%
08:00 - 08:45 79% Lap swimming + upload to Garmin Connect via iPhone
16:28 76%
17:50 75%
18:00 - 19:01 Cycling with GPS, BT HR and BT CAD + upload to Garmin Connect via iPhone
19:45 67%
22:00 65%

Jul 26
09:18 61%
10:57 61%

pel;'